Senses
by xStaticxTelevisionx
Summary: It would seem that with the arrival of her Role, Alice's coffee-making skills have taken a turn for the worst. Julius agrees, though they think the coffee is terrible for extremely different reasons. T? T.


**And now, more romantic stuff, because I wanna. This is another written-at-midnight story, so if there are any grammar/capitalization/repetition errors/awkward wording, I apologize profusely. (I seem to be really paranoid about that stuff today.)**

**-Static**

**/*\**

Being a dragon, Alice had an amazing set of senses. Just at the window of her tower, she was aware of a great many more events than any mere human. She could see rabbits - ordinary rabbits - from two miles away, dancing through the brush as they escaped a hungry wolf. She could hear the termites in the house across the street, steadily munching away at the decaying wood of the abandoned hovel, occasionally collasping a few boards. She could feel each and every grain in the stone brick of the windowsill under her hands. Where it felt smooth to other people, she could determine where one mineral ended and another began. She could name each and every dish that the family four blocks away was serving for dinner, because she could detect the scents of each and every spice and ingredient traveling through the air.

"You used to make coffee...differently." Julius stated from his place at Alice's small dining table, just next to the kitchen. She knew he was trying to be subtle, but the way he set his cup down, the miniscule bit of extra distance he put between himself and the beverage...

It was not the best cup of coffee she'd presented him.

"You use to drink it less bitter." She retorted, sitting down beside her friend, and glaring at the cup as if it was the mug's fault the coffee had come out terrible. Why was it so awful? What had she done wrong this time around? Julius simply rolled his eyes and set aside the most recently repaired clock, and started on a new one.

Even though he had technically come for a social visit, he still had to bring work with him.

The people in this crazy world had gunfights at the drop of a hat. Sometimes literally, and Julius was the only person capable of maintaining Wonderland's population. Sometimes Alice felt inclined to ask some of her friends to stop fighting so much, if only so that the Clockmaker could get a decent amount of rest before he was once again thrust into the endless work Ace so often presented him with.

It was no use. She was too stressed out over this ridiculous issue. At an impulse, Alice took the Clockmaker's abandoned mug and sipped. She almost choked. How had he finished nearly half the cup?!

"Dear God!" She exclaimed, "How are you not dead?" She questioned, glaring down at the drink accusingly, and then getting up to fetch a glass of water for herself. Julius had given this particular cup 80 points. The score was definitely higher than it should have been, why hadn't he spared himself and just told her the truth? He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sorry?"

"This has to be the worst cup of coffee I have ever had the embarrassment of making. Why didn't you tell me?" Julius appeared quite confused.

"You've served me worse." The Clockmaker answered bluntly. He had to stave down his irritation at the look she gave him.

"No way. I am not exaggerating when I say this is what I imagine Lucifer's tears taste like. Why did you give it 80 points?"

"...Lucifer's tears?" He stated, a little lost. Who was Lucifer?

"This is _so bitter_. How are you drinking it?" She pushed the beverage that tasted of pure evil as far away as she could across the rectangular table of her small dining room. Julius simply stared at her as if he was questioning her sanity.

She had to be joking.

"Alice," He stated, "This coffee is unusually bland for you."

What?

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice rising just the slightest in pitch in her distress, "That cup of coffee is a lot of things, _bland_ is not one of them." This was said with the utmost certainty, and Julius was at a complete loss. Was she playing some sort of prank? Just to be sure, he reached across the table, took the cup and sipped again. No, she was definitely wrong. This coffee was not strong enough for him, therefore it was nowhere near as strong as she was claiming it to be.

"Alice, are you sure? It does not taste bitter enough." She whipped the cup out of his grasp and sipped again. The face she made...no, she definitely wasn't joking. Or at least her acting had gotten much better. The way her eyebrows and nose scrunched up, and the way she puckered her lips, she didn't share his opinion. _How?_

"How can you say that? I know you like strong coffee but you have never wanted it to completely kill your sense of taste." Alright, what was going on? Julius was starting to worry for the girl's mental well-being. He took the cup and drank again.

"No, you are wrong. It's not close to water, but this is not what proper coffee tastes like."

"I agree with you on the latter part but..." She took the cup from him. "Nope. This is awful, but not because it's flavorless." Were they drinking the same coffee?

Julius took the cup from her again, and tasted it. He shot a questioning look at the girl he had lived with for almost a year. He knew her as well as she knew herself. He could not believe that Alice had such a different opinion.

"I'm telling you, this is too bitter!" And finally he'd had enough. Convinced this was some sort of silly prank - and so getting quite irritated - he took another long drawl from the cup, which was nearing empty at this point, and pulled the girl close. He'd caught her off guard, and so she did not resist, and then he kissed her. He made sure she was tasting the same thing he was.

Alice almost wanted to pull away and slap him, at least that was what her instincts told her to do, but she refrained. This was _Julius_. She would never hit him, but at the same time..._what the Hell was he doing?_ She was going to break it off when she realized,

_Oh,_ she thought, _He's not kissing me, he's making me drink-THAT GOD AWFUL COFFEE!_ The moment the disgusting liquid hit her tongue, she had to push him away. She'd drunk enough of the evil beverage to last her a lifetime, and she was not interested in a drop more.

Julius on the other hand, felt quite surprised at himself. He had never lost his temper like that before, and when she pushed on his chest with both hands, it was just as effective as a slap back to reality. He just _kissed_ her. Without her permission. To make her drink something. Just like that damned Peter White.

There was no way she wasn't angry. He was completely braced for the slap that he felt certain was coming.

The girl in question - having expelled the taste from her mouth with a drink from her water - was simply sitting on her chair, staring up at him owlishly. The look on his face might have made her laugh if it wasn't for the fact that she could faintly smell fear starting to permeate his usually calm and stable scent. She too had realized something. She wouldn't have minded his advance had it not been for the coffee.

They simply stared at one another for a moment, the man exceedingly afraid that he had ruined whatever strange, but pleasant friendship he'd held with the woman. The woman was wondering what her revelation meant, and what might happen if she explored it a little more. She was worried about the repercussions, but...

She was a dragon.

Dragons were not known to be cowardly creatures.

She moved so that her body was facing him, and then she reached up with both hands to cup his face, and kissed him again, her eyes fluttering shut. This time, it was not rough, and she tensed up a little when at first he did not respond. For a moment it was awkward, and Alice had started to pull away, murmuring an apology and feeling just the tiniest bit hurt, when her companion placed a hand on her waist. The other started to tangle in the blond of her hair, and he reconnected their lips, a little hurried. _No, don't apologize, do not ever apologize._ She marveled at the sheer warmth and gentleness he was showing her. This kiss, though a little more intense, was not nearly as rough as the first one, and it appeared that was the intent. First, he seemed to focus entirely on preventing her from wanting to pull away. He kissed her like it was everything he'd ever wanted, but she could detect the tension hiding in his arms, his legs, every muscle in his body as he restrained himself. He was trying to make her comfortable, and she was not protesting.

At some point, he'd changed things. Much of the reassuring pressure gone, his lips were just barely ghosting over hers, tiny pecks of kisses that seemed to hold an air of apology. _I'm sorry that first kiss was such a mess. I'm sorry I upset you. Let me fix it._ And fix it he did. He had stood up, pulling her with him, and now both of his hands were at her waist, while her arms had wound around his neck, carefully grasping strings of his long blue hair. The kisses, though light, were warm and soft, but it was clear he had no intention of letting her go. He wanted to explore her revelation just as much as she did, and Alice was more than pleased with this development.

The coffee forgotten, the Clockmaker halted his movements, pulling away for but a second, and rested his chin on top of the Dragon's head. His arms had wrapped around her, and his left hand was tracing circles into the spot between her wings as she snuggled up into his chest, practically purring in contentment.

That was when Julius realized something.

Alice was in her nightgown, the very one he'd insisted was far too immodest at the Clock Tower.

Now that he knew just how she felt about him, he had an entirely different discomfort to deal with.

**/*\**

**So how was that? I've been wanting to do JuliusxAlice for a while, kind of like those two AcexAlice oneshots I did. What if I told you I ship this more? Lol. Please leave some reviews! :D**

**-Static**


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